Mirabilis jalapa L.

Garden Four O'clock; Marvel of Peru; Beauty of the Night

Herb

Perennial

Vascular

Garden Four O’clock is an introduced herbaceous perennial in the Four-O'clock family (Nyctaginaceae). It is native to Central and South America. Garden Four O'clock is widely cultivated and escapes or persists in urban forests, around old home sites, on roadsides, and near trash dumps. It is a perennial from an enlarged tuberous black or brown tap root. There are usually several erect stems from a root crown. The stems are from 1-3 feet in height, much branched, green in color, and glabrous. The stems are swollen at the nodes and easily broken. Leaves are opposite, petiolate, ovate to triangular in outline, thin in texture, and glabrous. Flowers are produced in clusters near the apex of the branches. Each flower is subtended by a papery 5-lobed involucre. The “flower” is actually a pigmented modified calyx. It is salverform and red, yellow, pink, white, or bicolored. The flowers open in the late afternoon and close by early morning. The single seeded fruit is globose, black in color, and ribbed and wrinkled. Garden Four O'clock is a popular ornamental and is readily available as seed. It prefers a moist soil rich in organic matter and partial sun. It was cultivated by the Aztecs for medicinal and ornamental purposes.—A. Diamond.

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Not Native

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